Progressive metal pioneers continue to broaden their horizons.
Anyone who pushes the play button on Periphery V would be forgiven for thinking they’ve been tricked into putting on a route one heavy metal record. Opening song Wildfire explodes with a drum fill, followed by chugging riffs and pinch harmonics, then frontman Spencer Sotelo’s barrage of growls only make it feel even more brash.
However, as the seventh album by Washington DC’s djent pioneers (a term they clearly dislike, given the snarky album title) proceeds, it reveals a host of experimental proclivities. Not only do Wildfire’s riffs eventually give way to a lounge jazz interlude. Silhouette ventures even further into uncharted territory by evoking a prog Linkin Park, its blitzkrieg guitar playing traded for soothing keys and electronics, with Sotelo giving…
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Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 138